China emerged as a global power by turning itself into the world’s factory floor. It is expanding that power, and its military might, with another striking industrial feat: becoming the world’s shipyard.

More than half of the world’s commercial shipbuilding output came from China last year—making it the top global shipmaker by a wide margin. The once-prolific shipyards of the West that helped forge empires, expand trade and win wars have shriveled. Europe accounts for just 5% of the world’s output, while the U.S. contributes next to nothing. Most of what China doesn’t build comes from South Korea and Japan......

Giant Chinese shipbuilding firms that crank out merchant ships for the world are often the same ones building warships for China’s navy. Their shipyards are thriving, with billion-dollar contracts pouring in not just for warfighting gray hulls but also for containerships, oil tankers and bulk carriers for shipping lines from China, the West and even Taiwan.

With their order books full for years to come, the shipyards have expanded, trained enormous pools of workers and built sprawling supply chains.

China’s military planners have leveraged all that to build up the world’s largest navy, in hull count—a force central to Xi’s greatest ambitions of projecting power overseas, protecting the sea lanes that connect China to the world and absorbing Taiwan.......

The major difference between the Chinese and American shipbuilding industrial bases is that “China benefits from a massive commercial shipbuilding workload,” Rear Adm. Thomas J. Anderson said to a congressional subcommittee in May, when he was the program executive officer for ships in the U.S. Navy. Meanwhile, he said, the U.S. government largely goes it alone, bearing all the costs of the ships and associated infrastructure.

“Clearly China’s commercial shipbuilding industry provides them a massive advantage when it comes to shipbuilding capacity,” he said.

In a protracted conflict, China’s shipyards would give its navy a significant upper hand. Sized to build at wartime rates, they would be able to quickly accelerate production, replace lost ships and repair damaged ones. That is a capability U.S. shipyards brought to the fight during World War II, building Allied vessels faster than German U-boats could sink them.

Today, America’s shipyards are struggling to keep up with peacetime demand. Submarines are bogged down by maintenance delays and new ones are behind schedule. The Navy, for instance, is expecting two new Virginia-class submarines a year, but is receiving the boats at the rate of 1.4, a Defense Department official said last year.......

There isn’t enough trained labor, dry docks are in short supply, and in the case of some critical components, only a handful of vendors are still standing......

When foreign companies pay the Chinese shipyard, a portion of those proceeds is very likely reinvested in the shipyard, said Funaiole. “If the piers and dry docks and assembly halls that are being invested in are also the piers and dry docks and assembly halls that are used to produce military vessels, how do you write that?”

To Shugart at the Center for a New American Security, this is the upshot: “All these countries that are buying ships from China are paying them to build the shipyards they would need to repair their fleet in wartime,” he said, adding, “It’s kind of hard to watch.”......

China’s navy fields 370 battle force ships, more than the U.S. Navy. That number is expected to rise to 435 by 2030. Its shipyards are building increasingly sophisticated warships, such as the large and well-equipped Renhai-class surface combatant. They have also built the world’s largest coast guard and fishing fleets, and an extensive merchant marine—adding to China’s sea power..........

The U.S. Navy is expected, meanwhile, to stay the same size or get smaller in the next several years from the present 292 hulls, retiring more ships than it commissions, before it starts to grow again. The logistics support and sealift fleet that helps the military is aging.......

CCP propaganda

China does not have a legit blue-water navy.

The Federal Income Tax/Military Spending thread got me thinking about this. Short sighted foreign & domestic policy has painted us into a corner with a shrinking military while China with their 100 year plan is on the move to be the #1 power in the future.


Just read this article about how China is getting the world to pay for their military infrastructure expansion.


China’s Shipyards Are Ready for a Protracted War. America’s Aren’t.
While Chinese shipyards are thriving and primed to build at wartime rates, U.S. shipbuilding is in disarray




https://www.wsj.com/world/china/chi...-americas-arent-d6f004dd?mod=djem10point

China is broke and they're going to be a lot more broke when Trump is elected.

Chinese made products

Those yards would be craters if they ever became a real threat. We've fought a protracted war before.

Better start learning Mandarin.

Trump love it when it runs sideways and under 14

China is broke? Source please